268 BIRDS. 



and their tracks in the New Forest often arrest the atten- 

 tion of picnic-parties who have not the least idea of their 

 meaning. There are many points of interest in connection 

 with this bird, among those most often disputed being the 

 method in which the mother carries her young (between 

 the legs, and pressed with the bill, is, I believe, the actual 

 manner), the precise extent of the bird's migrations, and 

 the exact manner in which it produces the curious sound 

 known in some parts as " roding," which is quite distinct 

 from the " drumming " of the snipe. With regard to its 

 migrations, ornithologists seem on the whole to regard 

 these as very capricious, and Mr Saunders attributes much 

 of the scarcity of the woodcock at certain times to the 

 bird's secretiveness after moulting. In its external feat- 

 ures the woodcock is also among the most interesting of 

 our birds, the eye being placed far back, obviously by reason 

 of the way in which the bird obtains the soft worms 

 by thrusting its bill into the mud, the latter organ being, 

 moreover, most sensitive towards the tip, which is curved 

 and wrapped in a membrane. When on the foreshore, 

 the woodcock also devours quantities of small shrimps 

 and sand-hoppers, most of its food being obtained after 

 sundown. It bears some resemblance to the snipes, but 

 may be readily distinguished by the presence of feathers 

 down to the tarsus, which gives it the appearance of 

 being much shorter-legged than the latter. On the wing, 

 the woodcock hangs its head in a fashion unique among 

 birds. The bird lays in April in a depression in the earth 

 lined with dead leaves. It breeds in all the southern 

 counties. Eggs, 4, i^ inch ; yellowish, with brown 

 blotches. 



The Great Snipe, a winter, or, more properly, autumn, 

 visitor to the east and south of England, is rarer in the 



t Great west; while in Scotland and Ireland its re- 

 Snipe, corded occurrences have been little more than 

 a dozen. It is also known as the " Double " or " Solitary " 



